DEVELOPMENT KIT - VERSION 1.1 - NOVEMBER 2017 Product information PAGE 1
Minimum System Specs Operating System Windows 8.1 or newer Processor AMD Phenom II or Intel Core i3 processor or greater Memory 2GB + RAM Input 1x USB 2.0 port for wired operation Bluetooth 4.0 Dual Mode for wireless operation Requires internet connection Devices with a VR HMD requires a VR Ready system Operating System Windows 8.1 or newer Graphics Card NVIDIA GTX 970 / AMD R9 290 equivalent or greater Processor Intel i5-4590 equivalent or greater Memory 8GB + RAM Input 3x USB 3.0 ports Output Compatible HDMI 1.3 video output Bluetooth 4.0 Dual Mode for wireless operation PAGE 2 Product information
TABLE OF CONTENT About us Avatar VR 04 What s Avatar VR? 05 Unique features 06 Technology in detail 10 Product information PAGE 3
ABOUT US Avatar VR provides innovative Hardware solutions for Virtual Reality. Our goal is to bring Virtual Reality the most powerful feeling of presence, both for home and professional users. Thus we have been working to make pos- sible realistic multisensory experiences in the virtual scenario, allowing people enjoy a natural interaction with virtual elements, just as we do in the real world. Move around, interact with Virtual Reality using your own hands and touch it as if it was real. PAGE 4 Product information
WHAT S AVATAR VR? With the pitch Feel & Touch VR, Avatar VR is our newest wireless controller creation for Virtual Reality. As Gloveone was before, it has been designed to provide a realistic sense of touch thanks to the use of haptic technology but adding an impressive movement tracking capability. FEATURES MOTION CAPTURE Full Upper Body Tracking (Chest, Arms, Hands) SENSOR FUSION Improved hand tracking with 9-Axis IMU DRIFT CORRECTION Near Zero Drift Experience FULL FINGER TRACKING x6 9-Axis IMU with Near Zero Drift (NDZ) Motion Tracking HAPTIC FEEDBACK 10 Vibrotactile actuators FULL OCCLUSION SURVIVOR No visual tracking needed SMART CONTROLLER Conductive zones for commad triggering LATENCY Total latency under 28ms EXTREME POWER, NEGLIGIBLE FOOTPRINT! Both of our technologies Gloveone and Avatar VR, have an extremely low footprint for PC and mobile devices. All calculations are done onboard making them a perfect companion for low specs and non-intensive graphics tasks and environments. Product information PAGE 5
UNIQUE FEATURES Avatar VR includes all the features present in Gloveone plus some very unique capabilities that makes it the most powerful solution ever for natural interaction in Virtual Reality. Firstly, it has Full Finger Tracking (FFT) using 6 additional 9-AXIS IMU. It s important to remark that the use of IMU is the best solution in the market, compared with the simpler Flex/Bending sensor which only let one degree of freedom Moreover, we also provide a full upper-body tracking technology based on a minimal setup composed by small pieces of technology that are able to track the movements of your chest, arms, and hands with amazing accuracy. Drift correction: When using only IMU technology there is a phenomenon called drift. That means that as the time past space positions may change due to error accumulation in the internal process of calculating spatial coordinates. Thanks to the use of the Compass of all IMU in a hive hierarchy and combined with proprietary algorithms for drift compensation we are able to have a Near Zero Drift Experience (NZDE), where the user can experiment near 100% repeatability in movements without apparent error accumulation. Ultra-low latency: Thanks to the high end microprocessor used (Cortex M4), we are able to offer up to 1 ms sampling rate (1KHz). Full occlusion survivor: Are you working in hostile environments where an optical tracking solution is not optimal or feasible? Do you have occlusions or dead zones in your application? Here is where Avatar VR makes all the sense! Even though you place your both hands inside black boxes the tracking would still work flawlessly, making possible to achieve very specialized trainings and simulations impossible at the moment. All degrees of freedom: Thanks to our technology, there is a perfect match between tracking and real movements according to reliable biometrical hand models. Therefore, the degrees of freedom of abduction, adduction, and rotation are provided for all fingers. Whereas using Flex Sensors only offers 1 degree of freedom, using 9-AXIS IMU provide much more accurate tracking. Rotation on each finger Abduction Adduction Trackbands: Avatar VR is a complex system composed by an intelligent Glove and Trackbands. A Trackband is a relative positional tracking accessory comprising a collection of 9-AXIS IMU in charge of performing direct kinematics to track the positions of hand, forearm and chest*. The global accuracy of the system in steady mode is under the error margin of 5. PAGE 6 Product information
Depending on the configuration you choose, you will be able to use one or both hands thanks to Avatar VR s Trackbands. Trackband3 is a one hand setup comprising wrist, forearm and chest sensors. Trackband2 is two hand setup composed of wrist and forearm sensors that can only be used in combination with Trackband3. TRACKBAND3 Complete Tracking Addon for one hand (Wrist, Arm, Chest) The trackbands, in conjunction with the HMD s own tracking technology, enable Avatar VR to offer top-notch relative positional tracking. The absolute positional tracking will be provided by the HMD and will be used as the spatial basis for the relative positioning offered by Avatar VR s Trackbands. This means that the user s position is tracked by the HMD, whilst the hands are tracked via the trackbands based on this information. These straps are physically connected to the Avatar VR device(s) by wire and must be calibrated before the device s use, once trackband(s) and device(s) have been physically connected. TRACKBAND2 Auxiliary Tracking Addon for two hands (Wrist, Arm) Product information PAGE 7
Upper body tracking: Capture method: Using the TrackBands included in Avatar VR. A collection of small sensors composed by IMU that provide forward kinematics with drift correction. Tracked points: One hand mode: 3 points through a TrackBand3 (Chest, Arm, Wrist) Two hands mode: 5 points through TrackBand3 + TrackBand2 (Arm, Wrist) Resolution: 0,06º per IMU for all Axis Measurement range: 2000 DPS per IMU, regarding to any possible range movement corresponding to a human biometrical model. Speed (FPS): 200 FPS wired and Bluetooth Data format: 9-AXIS fused Quaternion, 6-AXIS fused Quaternion, and additional data such acceleration, gyros, compass time marks and others. Speed (FPS): 200 FPS wired and Bluetooth Data format: 9-AXIS fused Quaternion, 6-AXIS fused Quaternion, and additional data such acceleration, gyros, compass time marks and others. Output/feedback function: x10 LRA actuators. Hand Tracking Capture method: x7 9-AXIS IMU (x2 in the thumb, x1 in rest of the fingers, x1 in the main PCB) Tracked points: One hand mode: 3 points through a TrackBand3 (Chest, Arm, Wrist) Two hands mode: 5 points through TrackBand3 + TrackBand2 (Arm, Wrist) Resolution: 0,06º per IMU for all Axis Measurement range: 2000 DPS per IMU, regarding any possible range of movement corresponding to a human biometrical model. PAGE 8 Product information
*NOTE: Only for the use of Trackband3 Product information PAGE 9
TECHNOLOGY IN DETAIL Haptics? The solution for the sense of touch There are different approaches for transmitting touch but in our honest opinion we have selected the best solution translating vibrations into touch sensations. Thus, there is an array of 10 specialized vibrotactile actuators which vibrate in a physiologically natural frequency in order to be interpreted as real touch for your brain. This aren t just simple vibrations. Actuators don t work only as On / Off, but are able to vibrate in 1024 different steps independent. That means that very complex and rich touch sensations can be simulated. The actuators we use, combined with its frequency response ensures that the sensation is perceived as touch and not like a simple vibration. PAGE 10 Product information
Latency Latency matters, and we are proud to achieve an ultra-low latency using Bluetooth 4.0 LE, lower than 8ms in any case. For haptics, latency also plays an important role. If latency is higher than 40ms, the brain doesn t feel touch as there is a delay between the feedback you perceive and the action you perform and that s the reason why we use actuators with only 20ms latency. Thus, global latency including haptics and communcations is under 28ms due to the technology we use onboard. That makes a realistic perception of touch possible. ACTUATORS LATENCY BLUETOOTH LATENCY WIRED LATENCY 20 ms < 8 ms 1 ms Product information PAGE 11
Universal Smart Controller It is not only haptics but also a Smart Controller! We include conductive zones that enable the users trigger actions inside any scenario. This feature has Zero Latency as it s circuit based and it doesn t need gesture interpretation. 1 2 3 4 Conductive zones Connectivity Remember that you can simultaneously connect up to 7 devices by Bluetooth or by cable connection up to the maximum of your computer capability when wireless communications are not possible or reliable. A heterogeneous system composed by wireless and cabled devices is possible and transparent for you. Don t limit your mind only to PC as you could work with most of the mobile devices like Samsung Gear VR, Google Cardboard and Google Daydream, using Bluetooth connection. 4 Ergonomics Our technology has been designed with passion from scratch, thinking of the users and customers, and dealing with two main issues: Size and hygiene. We provide a unique size covering the majority of adult male/female hands. Regarding cleanliness, only the highest quality fabrics have been used to deal with wear and tear. Sensor Fusion Moreover, we include a 9-AXIS IMU in the mainboard to fuse Rotation, Acceleration and Compass data with the tracking option you choose. This is really useful when dealing with low confidence optical tracking instants, resulting in a better tracking compared to using your bare hands. PAGE 12 Product information
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3 rd party Tracking Even though our Premium technology Avatar VR provides autonomous tracking, if you want to track / detect your hand in the space using 3 rd party solutions you will be able to make a direct integration with Leap Motion, Intel RealSense, Microsoft Kinect or Vive Tracker among others. Thus, using Gloveone requieres the use of any of the technologies mentioned before. PAGE 14 Product information
Xperiences Portal Would you like to know what the possibilities are? Do you need some extra inspiration? In the Xperiences Portal you will be able to see videos and download packages to try them with your own devices. At the same time, license customers will have the possibility of uploading exclusive content to the portal in order to spread their work to the community. Compatibility Or devices are compatible out of the shelf with the most famous VR HMD like Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and OSVR HDK. They can be combined with any HMD in the market, so instead of using their controllers you can use our technology to perform natural interactions in VR as if you were inside. The experience of looking at your hands moving your fingers and grabbing things is indescribable unless you try it at first hand! With Gear VR you can benefit from the inertial tracking to have all your upper body present without using any external solution. Moreover, we can combine our techniques with others in order to achieve a science fiction immersion sensation. Development A piece of technology is great but you need to code for it! That s why we provide an open API in C++, C# and Unity 5 prefabs in order to make your own creations, with your imagination as the only limit. We also provide commercial licenses with extended support and compatibilities. Product information PAGE 15
NeuroDigital Suite (ND Suite) NeuroDigital Suite is the unified control center for Gloveone and Avatar VR. Here you will master all the features present in the devices at the same time you monitor all the values for actuators and IMU sensors*. Battery levels, performance and tests are also available. Maybe the most important feature is the possibility of having a visual feedback for haptics. Translating vibrations into graphics waves makes it easier for an external user to understand what touch sensation is being experimented. Moreover, you will have the power to use Virtual Devices to develop your software without having any physical device. That means agile development for your team! PC Software isn t the end. We also have an Online Customer Portal (ND Home) in permanent communication with ND Suite, that allows you review your licenses and give access to exclusive contents and downloads. NDSuite *Represented information may change depending on the selected device. PAGE 16 Product information
Sensations Designer (only with license) What if you could paint your touch sensations like an artist? That s exactly what Sensations Designer does! As easy as a child s game, as building block game you have the power to create, test and record touch sensations. Create your own Haptic Library! Product information PAGE 17
C/ Prolongación Camino de la Goleta, 2. CONTACT INFO Ph: +34 950 172 762 www.neurodigital.es Edf. La Celulosa I. Planta 1, 7B. Ph: +34 606 703 424 Info@neurodigital.es 04007. Almeria, SPAIN PAGE 20 Product information